Trust your eyes, not the GPS

[jackdale]

And another

The driver of a Toronto-bound bus was using a personal GPS when he drove the double-decker vehicle into a low railway bridge in central New York, a crash that resulted in the death of four passengers.

Driver using personal GPS before Megabus crash - CTV News

[ilikerust]

I would say that like any other man-made tool or technology, you have to know how to use it. The original post was basically saying don't rely on GPS to the exclusion of using your own eyes and sense. Which is not to say don't use GPS, or that GPS will always steer you wrong.

Case in point: last weekend I took my family out on my "new" (old) sailboat for our first overnighter. I had bought a Garmin chartplotter for the boat and we used it to get out to a very nice anchorage. Overnight some ugly weather came in and stayed with us all day the next day.

I never would have made it back to our marina without that chartplotter. Visibility was about 1 NM - it was socked in, very gray, misty, foggy, rainy, spray, etc., as far you could see (which was not very far). I did not use the chartplotter to the exclusion of looking around and reading paper charts, though. But there were several times where, if it had not been for the GPS, I would not have been able to easily determine just exactly where the heck I was.

So, like any other tool, use it, but know how to use it - and, perhaps more importantly, how not to use it.

[AE28]

Originally Posted by jackdale

And another



Driver using personal GPS before Megabus crash - CTV News

This really is a tragedy!!!

Anyone who has ever been on that road knows how many warning signs there are approaching that bridge, which has been hit dozens of times over the last 55 years that I know of.

IF, repeat that big IF, that bus had been equipped with a truck/bus specific GPS system, the accident may have been avoided.

Paul